Jarkko Ruutu scored two goals on Friday night to lead the surging Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Rob Scuderi, Jordan Staal and Sidney Crosby also scored for Pittsburgh, which pulled within five points of the Atlantic Division-leading Devils with a game in hand. The Penguins have won five in a row. More impressively, they have picked up at least one point in 15 straight games, winning 13 of them.
Brian Rafalski, Patrik Elias, Zach Parise and Travis Zajac scored for the Devils, who had won 10 of their previous 14.
PHOTO: AP
The Penguins drained the drama from the showdown by jumping out a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by Ruutu, Scuderi and Staal.
Blues 1, Predators 0
At St. Louis, Bill Guerin scored late in the second period, Manny Legace stopped 19 shots for his fifth shutout this season and St. Louis ended a 14-game losing streak against Nashville.
It was Nashville's first game since acquiring center Peter Forsberg from Philadelphia in a trade on Thursday night. The former MVP did not play against the Blues and planned to make his debut with the Predators yesterday at home against the Minnesota Wild.
Blue Jackets 3, Sharks 0
At Columbus, Ohio, Gilbert Brule, Fredrik Modin and Sergei Fedorov each had a goal and an assist and Fredrik Norrena stopped 29 shots for his third shutout of the season, lifting Columbus over San Jose.
The Sharks were shut out for the second game in a row, running their scoreless streak to 148 minutes, 30 seconds.
Columbus' three goal-scorers ended recent difficulties finding the net. Brule picked up his first goal in 16 games, Modin notched just his fifth in his last 27 games and Fedorov scored after not having a goal in his last 11 games.
The Blue Jackets had lost two in a row and five of the last six.
Canucks 2, Blackhawks 1, SO
At Chicago, Trevor Linden and Brendan Morrison scored in the shootout, and Roberto Luongo made 34 saves to lead Vancouver to its third straight win and the top spot in the Northwest Division.
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,
The Philippines curling team has been rocking it in Harbin, claiming the tropical nation’s first Asian Winter Games medal yesterday with a victory in the men’s final against South Korea. The team of Marc Pfister, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and alternate Benjo Delarmente took gold with a 5-3 win at Harbin Pingfang Curling Arena. The Philippines Olympic Committee was quick to celebrate with a post on Instagram to mark the historic gold. “This is the first-ever medal for the Philippines at the Asian Winter Games, and the highest achievement for a Southeast Asian athlete in the Games’ history! What an incredible
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju and Kao Cheng-jui were defeated by their Chinese counterparts 3-0 on Saturday in the men’s doubles final at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash. Lin and Kao received their silver medals after being defeated by third-seeded duo Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin of China 2-11, 4-11, 11-13. The Taiwan pair were left playing catch-up early in the match after the Chinese duo proved unstoppable in the first and second game. Although Lin and Kao picked up their pace in the third game and at one point took a 10-8 lead, they were crucially unable to take
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien on Tuesday dumped compatriot and second seed Hsieh Su-wei out of the women’s doubles at the Qatar Open to set up another potential Taiwanese showdown, while world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat in the second round. Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu, who earlier this year won the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Hobart International, defeated Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 10-5 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Grandstand Court 3 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. Wu and Jiang on Sunday advanced to the round-of-16 with a 7-6 (7/7),